Don’t Drown the Bees!

Moist soil provides the perfect drinking spot for bees.

Did you ever stop to think that bees need water?  I certainly never did, that is, until I began setting up our apiary.  Yes, it does seem obvious in retrospect (they need it to make honey, after all), but it just never occurred to me before.  Perhaps if I had had a swimming pool it would have been more obvious, for I understand many a drowned bee can be found in them. And that’s because, as I learned the hard way, bees just don’t do well with liquid any deeper than about a 1/4”. Seems kinda dumb that they could drown in so little, but once their wings are wet, it becomes a struggle for them to just stay upright. Originally and naively, I thought our small garden fountain would be a great water source for our bees.  Wrong. Then I tried setting out a few terracotta flower pot bases with a bit of H2O in them – still too deep.  Next, I set up a hanging chicken waterer with glass beads in the trough, so they could walk on water so-to-speak – still managed to kill a few of them. I thought for sure I was going to end up drowning the whole lot. But then I noticed my little winged friends hanging out by the soaker hoses in the garden and I realized that was the perfect solution.  Wet soil gave them all the moisture they needed to gather, plus the crucial support to harvest it safely.  So now, when necessary, I run the soaker hoses in the raised beds near the apiary at short intervals to make sure both the plants are well-watered and the bees are, too!  Extra bonus, no additional set up cost or effort.  Happy plants, happy bees, happy me! Sweet!